Two tragedies in one day at the Vallette prison in Turin. A woman took her own life, another let herself die of hunger slowly, even refusing water and treatment and asking only for her son. SJ, a 43-year-old Nigerian, had been in the institute since 21 July after a long period under house arrest, she had to serve a sentence, with the sentence ending in 2030, for crimes related to illegal immigration. For 18 days he didn't eat, drink or take medicine. It wasn't a hunger strike, like the one Alfredo Cospito had put in place, she let herself go day after day: she only repeated that she wanted to see her 4-year-old son left with his father.
Two nights ago her heart stopped beating. The intervention of the prison police and medical personnel was useless. The causes of death will be established by the autopsy, which the prosecutor's office of the Piedmontese capital - where a file has been opened - intends to order on Monday. But right now the woman's lawyer, Manuel Perga, says he is "angry and perplexed". "The first impression - he explains - is that the problem has been underestimated". To the guarantor of the rights of prisoners in Turin, Monica Chiara Gallo, the case was never reported: "We would have activated our procedures to try something".
The other prisoner who took her own life was 28 years old. She had been taken to the prison from Genoa Pontedecimo. His is the 43rd suicide of 2023 in prisons, the 16th only between June and August.
(Unioneonline/ss)
